


Dimmed Hope

by luminare_ardua



Series: The Infinite Descent [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Drabble Collection, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-16
Updated: 2012-04-16
Packaged: 2017-11-03 19:03:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/384813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luminare_ardua/pseuds/luminare_ardua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel in the Siege of Hell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dimmed Hope

Forty years. Castiel and his brethren have been here, living, fighting, dying, for forty long years. They are here for the sake of one mortal soul. To rescue him from this place and prevent the escape of their Fallen brother. At the end of forty years, many of his brothers have Fallen themselves, light utterly lost and corrupt. The pain of shoving a blade through the heart of one who was a brother is unique, and shattering in its ever-growing frequency. 

At the first light of dawn, on the first day of the forty-first year, Castiel and his remaining warriors finally break through to where Dean Winchester has been held for 40 years, four months in the world of mortals he is to return to. Forty years has been as eternity, for them and for him. 

Castiel gazes at the heaps and mounds of demonic corpses, darker, blacker even than the surrounding darkness. His wings and raiment and face are blackened with dust, soot and ichor, and the light of his Grace is dimmed from the soul-weariness he feels. He and his brethren are so dimmed by their experiences in Hell that they barely show against the infernal gloom that pervades the Innermost Circles. 

They are all worn down-- not a one of them shines as bright as they did in Heaven, before they came to this place forsaken by their Father. Hell and its twisted miasma tore into them and touched them, cold, insidious, menacing. They are all worn down, and their numbers too are worn bare and patched. Once they all shone brighter than the stars, but years of grief and toil and Grace-dulling battle have reduced them to pale gleams. 

As Castiel pushes forwards, he wonders if Dean Winchester, darkened as he surely must be, will even be able to see him, to know that he is saved, by the time Castiel can reach him.


End file.
